A series of recent events is helping move the 10,000 Los Angeles residents who make their living as security guards in commercial buildings around the city closer to gaining the respect and livable wage they are seeking.

The latest development is an agreement announced Tuesday between the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and Robert Maguire of Maguire Properties that the two entities will jointly fund a three-year training program designed to upgrade the skills of the security guards who are being described by city officials as the first responders in the event of a natural or man-made disaster striking in any of the commercial buildings that dot the landscape of the Los Angeles Region.

The agreement between Maguire, the largest and one of the most influential commercial building owners in downtown Los Angeles, is being heralded as an historic breakthrough that is expected to propel the three-year effort to organize security guards significantly closer toward securing bargaining rights for workers, the majority of whom have no sick pay, vacation pay nor can they afford health benefits.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is getting considerable credit for helping the two sides break a long stalemate.

“Some thought this day would never come, but I never thought it wouldn’t. We would not be here without Mayor Villaraigosa,” said SEIU’s Jono Schaffer who credited the mayor for helping each sideunderstand the other’s needs.

“I’m very pleased with the agreement,” said Maguire. “The mayor played a crucial role in bridging the gap on several issues. . . We have a significant and comprehensive agreement.”

As part of the agreement, Maguire and the union have each agreed to put up $125,000 annually for three years to create a pilot training program, for the approximately 300 officers in Maguire properties, that is being described as a template for one that could be used around the nation.

But before the training program can be implemented, SEIU will have to win the right to serve as the bargaining unit for the security guards—the majority of whom are African American—and that was one of the other sticking points that Shaffer credits Villaraigosa with helping iron out. SEIU currently represents the janitors and other workers in the high rise buildings, and building owners fear that having one union represent all workers could compromise building security in the event of a strike. Consequently, SEIU has agreed to create a separate security-guard-only union to allay these concerns.

Now the next step is to get agreements with other building owners in the region to remain neutral on the issue of the security personnel joining the union of their choice. If the majority of the owners agree, then SEIU can call a vote and if approved begin negotiating with the private security guard contracting companies that supply officers for the buildings.

Among the concerns are increasing wages, which a study by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) indicates averages about $8.50 per hour; insuring that the officers have access to affordable benefits; and improving the training for officers. Officials believe these things will help reduce the industry’s tremendous turnover rate which LAANE said ranges from 90 to 243 percent annually in some buildings.

The agreement between SEIU and Maguire follows the introduction of legislation last week by Los Angeles City Council members Eric Garcetti and Jack Weiss designed to improve public safety at commercial office buildings.

The legislation, which is currently in the Public Safety Committee and from there will go on to the Housing, Community and Economic Development Committee, requests: 1) the city attorney, police, fire and emergency preparedness departments report back on the role of private security officers in local emergencies, particularly their coordination with local authorities; as well as the feasibility of 2) the fire department creating a training program for private first responders to improve their ability to make decisions in emergencies and coordinate with local authorities; and requiring owners of high-rise commercial buildings and other specified highly trafficked venues to have on duty at certain times personnel trained by the fire department and others.

According to Rev. Eric Lee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a member of the Stand for Security Coalition, which has been instrumental in working with SEIU, this legislation follows a measure passed in June of 2005 that asked building owners to voluntarily implement training programs.

“But apparently voluntary is not working,” noted Councilman Weiss’ spokesperson Lisa Hansen.

While security guards and their supporters loudly applaud all of these efforts to improve their working conditions and professionalize the job, Rev. Lee sounds a cautionary note he knows may not necessarily be popular.

“I might get in trouble for saying this, but from SCLC and many in the black community, there is a fear that once we organize and create or form a union, the corporate strategy to undermine those unions will take place again, and that African American workers may be displaced at an alarming level,” said the SCLC head, who agrees that the security guard position is probably one of the last remaining categories of low-skill jobs with a large availability of positions.

Lee’s “again” reference goes back to what happened to janitors and hotel workers.

These jobs used to be held predominantly by African Americans who unionized and won livable wages that allowed them to raise families and send children to college, said Lee. “Now these positions are predominantly held by Latinos, and they are not as well paying as they were. When corporate America broke the union, the jobs went to very low paying jobs. Now the pay is inching up, but it’s not where it was at the height of the industry, when African Americans were in the positions.”